With a Name like Love by Tess Hilmo

Author:Tess Hilmo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

17

Ellen spent the afternoon flushing Mrs. Mahoney’s toilet. She wandered into the bathroom on the main floor off the kitchen and came out hollering, “She’s got a flusher! An honest-to-goodness flusher!” Ollie tried explaining that of course they had seen toilets before, but Ellen was only five and couldn’t remember a time when they had unlimited access to anything other than their portable outhouse.

Mrs. Mahoney didn’t seem to mind Ellen’s fascination. “These floors were made for the patter of little feet,” she said in response to Ellen’s running from room to room and shouting excitement about the lace window curtains and quilted coverlets on the beds upstairs.

“Look at this, Ellen,” Ollie said to her baby sister when Mrs. Mahoney was out back showing the reverend where he could park his Chevy truck and trailer. “Do you see this?” Ollie was reaching into Mrs. Mahoney’s Frigidaire and showing off the ready-made ice cubes that came in perfect squares.

“Ooooo,” Ellen crooned. “It’s like you said, Ollie. Real ice and loads of it! Here, give me some.” Ellen flicked an empty hand up at her sister.

Ollie quickly shut Mrs. Mahoney’s freezer. “Mind your manners. It’s not ours to take without asking.” She knew Ellen would be asking and hoped the answer was yes.

“She must be rich,” Ellen said, swinging her arms out wide and twirling in a circle. Her blue calico dress swirled out from her skinny legs like petunia petals.

“Not really,” Ollie said. “Most folks have sinks and toilets. It is 1957, Ellen—even in Binder.”

Ellen was undeterred. “Ice and flushers both. I might as well be in heaven.”

Ollie couldn’t agree more.

Mrs. Mahoney lived in a two-story, four-bedroom house. She used the bedroom on the main floor, so she gave two of the three upstairs rooms to her new guests. Ollie’s mama and daddy would sleep with Ellen in one room, and the four other girls took the second bedroom. Ollie noticed the last upstairs bedroom was locked tight, but didn’t pay it much mind. Compared to their travel trailer, there was space to spare.

Aside from the bedrooms and bathrooms, there was a kitchen, a library, and a front sitting room. Ollie imagined having a house like Mrs. Mahoney’s someday, when she was grown and out on her own. She stood at the kitchen sink, looking out the window over a vegetable garden, and pretended it was all hers. She imagined pulling fresh cold milk from the refrigerator and pouring it into a tall glass for her someone special. A real glass of cold milk was something her mama couldn’t offer her daddy. Susanna could only offer a tin mug full of coffee or a tumbler of warm lemonade. Ollie imagined cooking her meals with a simple flick of a switch on the stove top and washing dishes in a sink of hot suds. No more burning the eggs over a campfire or waiting for water to boil. And the bathtub! The thought of closing her day with a hot bubble bath was

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